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Part of 🌰︎ chestnut / chinkapin genus Castanea in beech / oak family Fagaceae in bayberry / beech / birch / oak / walnut order Fagales.
Native to eastern 🇺🇸 USA and very-southern 🇨🇦 Canada. 🗺 Map by county (🇺🇸 USA-48) (color key), 🗺 map (North America, Central America), 🗺 map (eastern 🇺🇸 USA).
Formerly abundant and a major component of the Eastern hardwood forest, this tree is almost extinct in the wild, having been killed by a bark fungal disease chestnut blight Cryphonectria parasitica. Although I see that my local Conservation District is selling bare-root trees of this species, but grown from in-state survivors of the blight, known to be resistant. Worth a try, to resurrect this amazing piece of Americana! The disease also impacts (not quite as hard) this tree's closely-related (even shares most of its home range) sister-species Allegheny chinquapin Castanea pumila.
Uses by native peoples(Ethnobotany database)
Castanea hosts caterpillars of 129 speciesof butterflies and moths, in some areas.
🔍︎ 🔍︎ images Discover Life Encyclopedia of Life Michigan Flora (Minnesota) Wild Flower Garden Missouri Botanical Garden Native Plant Trust Flora of North America NRCS PLANTS db Wikipedia
🏠︎ 🌳︎ broadleaves, ╟ alternate, 🍂︎ simple non-lobed ▲▲ toothed 🌳︎🍃︎ broadleaf branches, ╟ alternate, list of attributes, no catkins thorns pods, terminal buds w/2 scales
Allegheny chinquapin Castanea pumila